For the past few years, I’ve spoken at a great event in Nashville called devLINK. I’ve really enjoyed speaking there.

Although it more developer oriented, it’s got a great SQLSaturday kind of feel. It’s heavily community oriented and has an intimate atmosphere about it. At 800 people, it’s also got the breadth of sessions and networking opportunities of a much larger event.

This year, devLINK has moved from its tradition home of Nashville to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Personally, I’m not thrilled about the move. It’s no longer just down the road and it’s going to be more a hassle for me to attend. But I’ll be there.

I’ve submitted six abstracts for the event. Hopefully some will be selected.

Locking & Blocking Made Simple

A good working knowledge of how SQL Server makes use of locking and transaction isolation levels can go a long way toward improving an application’s performance. In this session, we will explore SQL Server’s locking methodology and discover techniques for enhancing query response times.

Say Goodbye to Boring Meetings

Ever been in a meeting that drones on and on? It starts late, runs long, and doesn’t really accomplish anything. It’s a complete waste of everyone’s time. Worse yet, since nothing was resolved you’ll have to have a follow up meeting. Argh!

In this session you’ll learn some of the keys to conducting an effective meeting. You’ll gain practical tips for making your meetings more productive and dramatically improving one of the most inefficient parts of your day.

Getting Started in IT Consulting

Do you have the expressed goal or the suppressed desire to become an independent consultant? Think it’s too risky? Don’t know where to start? In this session, I’ll help you create a clear transition strategy to go from full-time employee to full-time independent IT consultant with a minimum of risk along the way.

I’ll discuss:

The many hats of a consultant

Strategies for minimizing risk

Setting up your business

How to handle sales

Low cost promotions

Some best practices

The PowerShell Cookbook for the DBA

The best DBAs work hard so that they don’t have to, well, work hard. In this session, we’ll discuss how you can use the PowerShell cmdlets and snap-ins to create scripts that automate the more mundane tasks in your role as a DBA or developer. We’ll create scripts that check the status of SQLAgent jobs, verify the configuration of your servers, and retrieves information from your SQL Server database. You can even store your results in a database table if you’d like. This session is mostly demos with only a few PowerPoint slides to get us started.

“I got promoted! Now what?”

You were a rockstar DBA/Developer. You could leap tall buildings and tune databases in a single bound. Life was grand. And then you got promoted. The skills that helped make a rockstar DBA/Developer won’t help you in management. In fact, some of those skills could actually be a hindrance. In this session we’ll discuss the new skills you’ll to hone to excel as a manager like, skills like: managing former peers, delegating to get more done, working more productively, giving effective feedback, and conducting effective meetings.

The Fundamentals of Good Negotiating

Creatively resolving differences and negotiating mutually beneficial agreements is crucial in all walks of life. It’s especially important and challenging in the IT industry where soft skills are not necessarily prevalent. ??In this session, we’ll introduce the basic concepts and precepts that will aid you in negotiating better agreements with your neighbors, peers, and even your boss.

The Art of Delegation

“Just do it.” That may have been a successful slogan for an athletic shoe manufacturer, but it’s no way to delegate tasks to your team. To successfully motive and lead your team, you must delegate in a way that encourages and motives yet accomplishes your goals. In this session, we’ll discuss proven tactics to get lead your team and get the results you need through the Art of Delegation.

Which Would You Choose?

I’m curious. Which of the sessions I’ve submitted would you choose? Are there some other topics that I should consider submitting?

If you’re a speaker and want to submit an abstract or two, the call for speakers ends on May 1st, 2011.